Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Tuesday, January 15, 2002 10:04 AM Victims Compensation Fund January , 2002 Mr. Kenneth L. Zwick, Director Office of Management Programs Civil Division U.S. Department of Justice Main Building, Room 3140 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530 Dear Mr. Zwick, Re: "September 11th Victims Compensation Fund of 2001" P.L. 107-42 In the immediate aftermath of the tragic attack of September 11th upon our nation, Congress enacted the above referenced legislation to compensate the relatives of the victims of that brutal attack. As elected representatives of many of those relatives, it is our firm belief that the interim rules issued by the Special Master on December 20th fail to satisfy the letter or the spirit of the legislation which we enacted. The legislation authorized payment for economic and non-economic loss. Economic loss was defined as "any pecuniary loss? including the loss of earnings? to the extent recovery for such loss is allowed under applicable State law." (Sec. 401(5)). Non-economic loss was defined to include among other things "physical and emotional pain, suffering ? mental anguish ? and loss of consortium." (Sec. 402(5)). The sole offsets to the payment for economic and non-economic loss were the "collateral sources" specified in Sec 402(4). These included "life insurance, pension funds ? and payments by Federal State or local governments related to the attacks of September 11th." These were clearly intended to be the only offsets. In his proposed rules, however, the Special Master has imposed offsets which are in no way authorized by the statute. Specifically, he imposes arbitrary income limits and restricts pain and suffering awards to $250,000 - no matter what the extent of the pain and suffering may have been. The practical effect of these caps is to drastically reduce the award from what the statute intended. Relatives of the victims who were in the financial services sector or in the public service sector - such as police officers and firefighters - will suffer a particularly adverse effect. This is not only contrary to the legislation but also entirely unfair. The financial services victims were killed precisely because of the jobs they held. They personified American business and commerce. That is why they worked in the World Trade Center and that is why our enemies targeted them. The police and firefighters were killed carrying out the most successful rescue operation in the history of the United States. It is bad enough that these good people were victimized by bin Laden. We cannot allow their relatives to be victimized again. As Mayor Giuliani stated in his farewell address: "we have an obligation to the people who did die? Their families need to be protected just as if they had been alive, financially and in every other way that we can help and assist their families? There should be no compromise about that ever ?" The Victims Compensation Fund was created as a part of a comprehensive legislative package which bailed out the airline industry and imposed restrictions on the right of the victims' relatives to recover from the airlines in court. The Fund was established to protect the rights of the victims' relatives. The Special Master cannot take it on himself to restrict those rights. Additionally, at the time the legislation was enacted, the amount of fatalities was expected to be between 6,000 and 10, 000. The final number will be less than 3,500. This will result in a significant reduction in the expected expenditures and makes the Special Master's false economies even less defensible. We request therefore that the interim rules be amended and redefined to the extent that income caps be removed when computing economic loss and that each victim's case be addressed separately when computing the non-economic loss attributable to pain and suffering. Mr. Feinberg has arbitrarily restricted the non-economic awards for pain and suffering, no matter what the extent of the pain and suffering. This is unacceptable. In the words of Congressman Peter King, "every death is tragic. A murder is particularly tragic. But to have your love one murdered in a burning building in full view of the world - in a scene which will be repeated in the media for decades to come - is a horror these families will never escape from. The Special Master cannot take it upon himself to restrict the rights of the families." Therefore, we request that the interim rules be amended to more appropriately compensate the victims' families' for the immeasurable pain and suffering endured by our loved ones. As Mayor Giuliani stated in his farewell address: "we have an obligation to the people who did died?Their families need to be protected just as if they had been alive, financially and every other way that we can help and assist their familiesS?There should be no compromise about that ever" We request that the interim rules be amended and that compensation for pain and suffering more accurately reflect that horror which was suffered. Justice demands no less. Sincerely, Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-15 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojN001617.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-01-15